WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hello all

Seems this area of the forums is quiet so hopefully my question will get answered.

It has been many many years since I owned a scanner and I was looking at getting back into it with the wet Winter on it's way and saw the Uniden UBC355XLT as they are within my budget but I am reading all sorts of things about analog now being phased out and to get a digital scanner which unfortunatly is out of my budget.

I live inland about an hour from Bunbury so I am worried about buying the above scanner and not hearing anything and it becoming a paper weight.

I understand police are now out but will I hear anything on an analog being so far inland and away from the city or is scanning even with digital a dying hobby these days?

Thanks for your time.

Howdy WesAusChris

Living where you are, it's unlikely that the police and ambos will be digital yet, so you should be able to listen in. The firies (and DPaW - i.e. CALM) are still analogue.

Being in a country area though means that a lot less happens so you have to be more patient to hear events of interest.

Appreciate the reply mate.

So I should at least hear something with that model then which is a good start.

I guess for the price they are at now it might be worth buying the UBC355XLT to start with instead of a more expensive one just to see if I enjoy it as much as I did in the past.

I have the 355XLT. Great bit of kit.

roland985 wrote:I have the 355XLT. Great bit of kit.

Great to know Roland.

I took the plunge and just purchased one tonight, should arrive hopefully by the end of the week, will be nice to try it out although I may need an external antenna as I am in a little gully with some hills but will so how I go.

Yeah. You'd best be getting some low-loss coaxial cable and mounting an antenna on the roof.

roland985 wrote:Yeah. You'd best be getting some low-loss coaxial cable and mounting an antenna on the roof.

I still remember my younger years trying to work out how to get the cable from the room to the outside, looks like I might just have to just take the flyscreen off slip it through and put the screen back on the best I can.

By the look of the forum and google a discone antenna is the way to go and they aren't a bad price either which is good.

Just noticed you are right next to the airport as well, must be nice listening to the pilots/tower.

WestAusChris wrote:
Just noticed you are right next to the airport as well, must be nice listening to the pilots/tower.

Lol. I don't listen to the airport at all. I consider it boring compared to DFES.

roland985 wrote:

WestAusChris wrote:
Just noticed you are right next to the airport as well, must be nice listening to the pilots/tower.

Lol. I don't listen to the airport at all. I consider it boring compared to DFES.

I'd be happy just to hear anything which brings me to a question I hope you may beable to answer.

The last time I used a scanner was about 20 years ago, it was a handheld, it seems now I have choices of external antenna for base stations.

After looking at discone antenna they may be out of my budget, is there one you or someone else might recommend for someone like myself getting back into scanning?

Seems I will also need to let you know what I would like to listen to, well DFES would be nice with the amount of bushfires we get down here, police would be interesting, not so much ambulance, personal preference, maybe UHF, air might be out with my area?

Anything else feel free to ask me and thank you for the help.

A discone is the holy grail, and I definitely recommend it.

But you can attach a cheapo Ebay omnidirectional antenna over a metal surface (minimum 1 Square meter) and listen from that.

If not, the scanner itself should come with a nasty little wire antenna you can string up inside. It works. Kinda.

Cheers Roland, I will definatley look into a discone in the future, the roof of the house is corragated so I'm guessing that will be ok maybe with a magnetic mount for now.

Well the scanner arrived today, not sure if its the crappy antenna that it comes, me living in a gully/hilly area or if everything in my area has moved to digital but all I hear is static as it stops on frequencies.

I guess for $45 it might be good to get a better antenna and try again.

Adjust the squelch mate.

roland985 wrote:Adjust the squelch mate.

Tried that as well, adjusted it and it starts scanning then just stops on static on certain channels, don't seem to hear anything.

Are you sitting at a desk with computers or other devices near it